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Gavriel Duval
Gavriel Duval is one of the main characters in Robin LaFever's Grave Mercy, and has a small role in the other two books, Dark Triumph and Mortal Heart. He is the love interest of the narrator Ismae Rienne. Gavriel Duval is a viscount and the older brother of the duchess, Anne. Aside from being the love interest of Ismae, he functions as Anne's greatest confidant and protector (and functions much in the same way for Isabeau), an unofficial member of the Privy Council, and a negotiator with several of Anne's suitors. He is most important in Grave Mercy, though he plays a role in Dark Triumph and Mortal Heart as well. He is the bastard son of Duke Francis II and Antoinette Hivern (also known as the "French Whore" by the Convent of Saint Mortain), and is the eldest of their five children. His relationship with his late father is rarely mentioned, although it is implied that he was close to him; he and his mother are estranged due to his mother's treasonous plots to place one of her bastard-born sons (originally Duval) on the throne as Duke of Brittany rather than Anne. In later books, there is no mention of Duval and Hivern mending this relationship after Hivern and François pledge fealty to Anne. It is unknown at what age he was pledged to Saint Camulos, the patron saint of war, though it is assumed to be quite young. In his younger years, he competed in the joust, and was, according to his mother and a baron, quite skilled at it, although he was quick to declare that those days are long gone now. According to François, his younger brother, he and Duval had been quite close prior to the birth of Anne. Duval would have been 12 or 13 when she was born, and was charged with taking care of her. François explains to Ismae that after Anne was born, he threw himself into his studies and worked hard to be the best at everything to better protect his sister, a narrative Duval himself supports by claiming that he was "besotted" the first time he saw Anne. At the age of seventeen or eighteen, Duval broke his oath to Saint Camulos to protect Anne and Isabeau. Though Crunard reveals his being an "oath breaker" to Ismae, it is Anne that tells the story. According to the young duchess, Nantes was under attack and while his father and the barons stood around arguing about what to do, Duval snuck into Anne and Isabeau's nursery, took the two young girls, and, with the help of Beast and de Lornay, fled the city with both girls on his horse, just before the nursery was broken into. It is implied that he fought in the Great War for his father and for Brittany. Duval would have been around 21 or 22 during the war, so this is likely, though there are no direct mentions of it; as the readers, we are only told that he was on a battlefield, presumably multiple times, that he nearly died (and this is how he acquired the deep scars on his chest), and that he was friends with Anton Crunard, Chancellor Crunard's youngest son who was thought to have died on the battlefield in the war. During the events of Grave Mercy, Duval is roughly 26 years old. A stoic and serious man, he is known to sit and discuss politics "like an old man" and to have "the morals of a monk" (the latter designation having been earned through his reputation of not taking a mistress). He is duty- and honor-bound, and is described as such by a variety of nobels. Although he and Ismae do not initially get along, it becomes apparent quite early in the story that he becomes fond of her, and he is always kind to her; around halfway through Grave Mercy, Duval and Ismae become quite close, and their begrudging cooperation changes from fondness to affection and love. At the end of Grave Mercy, Duval proposes to Ismae; it is not until Mortal Heart that she accepts the proposal. Duval is one of the few characters in the nobility that is not a real person in Breton history, though his existence is based in history: Duke Francis II did have five illegitimate children with Antoinette de Maignelais, however, there aren't any records of their names. Clearly, Gavriel Duval was not one of them, and it is unknown if Anne of Brittany did have a bastard older brother that behaved as Duval does in the series.